One of my favorite Albert Einstein quotes is, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” Our thinking shapes our lives. To be successful you must think success. To excel you must think excellence. To become bigger you must think bigger. You cannot think small and become big. You cannot think failure and be a success. If you do not like the results you are getting then you’ve got to think on a higher level. You cannot solve the problems you face today at the same level of thinking you were at when you created them. Every now and then we ought to evaluate the sorts of thoughts we are thinking. People tend to have a mindset that determines how they process life and experiences. You may call it their way of thinking. I broadly categorize them into victor or victim mindset. It goes without saying that you have to think like a victor to be victorious in life. Even the most negative people you have met possibly think positive thoughts every now and then. But it is your default mindset that determines the direction of your life. I’m not referring to how you think based on circumstances around you but how you think to create the circumstances you want no matter what comes your way. Most people will not have difficulty thinking positive thoughts when everything is going well. It’s easy to be happy and positive when the economy is booming or when you get a raise at work. But if you are not solid, at the slightest challenge you face you could throw in the towel easily and react like a victim. However when you have programmed your mind to think like a victor, that is how you will think in the morning, noon, and night. That is how you will think when the stock market is up or when it is down. That is how you will think whether the real estate market is up or down. Whether your boss likes you or not, whether you got the job or not, whether you got the raise or not. Even if people walked away from you and you are all alone. You will still think like a victor in the worst-case scenario if you have been programmed to think that way. A victim is somebody who is pushed around by life. A victim is someone who lets life’s circumstances dictate their terms of existence. Victors create while victims react. Victors dominate while victims are dominated. Victors do exploits while victims are exploited.

King Solomon of ancient Israel said, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). You are what you think. The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. Are you a victor or a victim in life? Are you always complaining about everything and everybody? Does it seem that you have no choice or control over your life? Do you feel like a victim of the system? Victors win because in their hearts they first saw, thought, and then talked victory. They see themselves as victors irrespective of the circumstances. Success is first within then without. You are as you think in your heart. Your mindset is important because it is the mirror through which you view yourself and the eyeglasses through which you see your world. You may not be aware of your predominant way of thinking if you have not taken the time to program your mind how you want it to think. The good news is that you can change your way of thinking by reprogramming your mind.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 8, 9). God’s thoughts are superior to ours. I would like to have insight into how God thinks so that I can think like Him, I don’t know about you? We can live a higher life beyond our wildest imagination if we learn to think God’s higher thoughts. We need an ongoing process of renewal of our minds because we will continually be bombarded by the negativity in our world. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NLT). You could either conform or transform depending on your way of thinking. You don’t have to be a victim of the system.
Change your thinking, change your world!